Tales of Kings and Stars
by NeverBeLonely
Summary: "So she kissed him, because he had said his right words, and that was the way to do it." Short, unconnected stories featuring the King of the Goblins and his Labyrinth Champion. If you'd like to suggest a prompt for a story, you can find me on tumblr at quiddityofstars.
1. A Full Moon

_**Author's Note** _

_This was a prompt sent to me on tumblr, if you'd like to send me a prompt you can find me at **quiddityofstars**._

* * *

_**It's a full moon, I bought some rope and handcuffs to bring to bed tonight (beware the moon).**_

"Sarah…" His voice was a purr, and he was doing that thing where he rolled the 'r' in her name. He always did that when he wanted something. He knew it sent shivers up her spine. The way he stretched out her name was far too hypnotising for her liking. She suddenly remembered resting with her ear against his chest, feeling the vibrations as he talked…

_No, Sarah, focus._

"Yes, Jareth?" She turned to look at him from where she sat at her desk, her voice calm.

He was reclining on her bed, flicking through one of her magazines.

"It's a full moon tonight, you know."

She raised an eyebrow. "Does that have any relevance to this article I'm writing for work?"

He hesitated for a moment, and then sighed. "No. But that's what makes it interesting."

"My work is interesting."

He smiled a little. "You know I find your work interesting, darling, but at this moment I just happen to be thinking of something that is exciting in a different way"

Sarah turned back to her computer. "This is why I shouldn't leave issues of _Cosmopolitan _lying around. What is it this time?"

"_Thirteen Ways to Heat Things Up in the Bedroom_," he quoted the title of the article. "Do you think they know you don't have to be constrained to the limits of the bedroom?"

"They probably don't have as an expansive imagination as you." She typed at the keyboard for a few moments. "How does this relate to the full moon?"

"Ah, well, in tip number seven, the writer makes a rather unoriginal point about ropes and handcuffs that I won't bother quoting, but it made me think."

"Oh, I should imagine it did."

She heard him stand up from the bed and come to stand behind her chair. His hands rested on her shoulders and he leant down to kiss her cheek. She couldn't help but pause and close her eyes for a moment.

"Do you remember," His voice softly whispered in her ear, his lips brushing against her skin, "that lovely spot in the castle gardens? By the lake…" He pressed a kiss under her ear, warmth spreading from the point of his touch.

She remembered far too well.

"Imagine it at night," He continued, "moonlight reflecting on the water, shining on our skin, you can choose who ties up who…"

Sarah turned and looked up at him, a thoughtful look on her face. "I have been getting very good at tying knots lately."

Jareth grinned, his eyes sparkling with delight. "I am always available to help you practice."

"How kind of you." She grinned back at him.

"Well, I do aim to please."

Sarah laughed. "And I aim to be pleased, aren't we a good match?"

Jareth looked down at her like only a Goblin King head over heels in love could do. "We're perfect."


	2. You Make Bad Look Awesome

**_Author's Note_**

_This was a prompt sent to me on tumblr, if you'd like to send me a prompt you can find me at **quiddityofstars**._

* * *

_**You aren't really a good person, but god damn, you make bad look awesome (no one could steer me right, but mama tried).**_

"There you go, sweetheart, don't you look just like a movie star?" Sarah's mother turned her eight-year-old daughter's face to look in the mirror.

The face smiled back at her and Sarah giggled. "Thank you, Mama! Makeup is pretty."

Her mother smiled too and sighed. "One day, my darling, you're going to be so successful. A famous actress, I'm sure."

Sarah giggled again. "No, Mama! I'll be a queen! And go on adventures! With pirates! And dragons! And fairies!"

"My funny little girl, one day you'll grow out of that."

Sarah frowned a little and was about to protest when her father walked into the room and frowned.

"What are you doing?"

"Just bonding with my daughter, Robert."

"She shouldn't be wearing makeup, she's only eight!"

"Oh, calm down, it's just a little fun!"

Sarah look at her reflection for a moment and then got down from the stool in front of it. She left the room without her arguing parents noticing and went to her room, crawling under her blankets to block out the noise of the shouting, and picking up a fairy tale to read and get lost in. She eventually fell asleep, the red book with golden lettering held tight in her arms.

* * *

"Thank you for looking after Toby at the weekend, Sarah." Sarah's stepmother smiled at her as she stirred some cake mixture in a bowl.

Sarah nodded from where she sat at the dining table, drawing on the paper she was supposed to be doing her homework on. "No problem."

"Your father and I will be staying at home next weekend, so if you wanted to go and see your friends, or anything like that, you're allowed to. You could even go on a date!"

Sarah tried to find the right colour blue pencil in her pencil case. "I don't have any plans."

Her stepmother was silent for a few moments and then said, "Well, maybe another weekend then. I'm sure you'll find a nice boy some day soon, Sarah. One day you'll even have a family and home of your own, just like this one."

Sarah made a humming noise, that almost sounded like she was agreeing, but in truth she had stopped listening to her stepmother and was now more focused on getting her drawing of the Goblin King just right.

* * *

Nearby her university's soccer pitch, under a tree with a notebook on her knees, Sarah watched her friends kicking the ball around as they celebrated the end of their exams. It wouldn't be too long until they found out their results, and not too long after that would be graduation, and Sarah needed to make a decision. She tapped her pen on the page in front of her, on which she had drawn three columns. The first had the name of her hometown written at the top, where her family was, where she had been to university, where her friends were, and where the local theatre had offered her a job. The second column had New York written at the top, where she had always wanted to go, where she had been offered an internship at a theatre on Broadway, _actual Broadway_. The third column was blank. She didn't even know why she had drawn it. She felt like she was waiting for a third option, although she couldn't think of any reason why she should be.

She watched her friends and chewed on the end of her pen, sighing at her indecision.

"That is a rather disgusting habit."

Sarah turned and looked at the Goblin King suddenly lounging next to her. He looked different, as if he had made an attempt to be human, his clothes were certainly more casual, but when she tilted her head he seemed to shimmer, and she could see his true image was somehow hidden underneath. He winked, and Sarah blinked.

"I've tried to stop but sometimes when I'm stuck I just really can't help it." She said.

Jareth took out a handkerchief and used it to take the pen from her, wiping the chewed end with the fabric, looking at it as if it offended him. Sarah simply watched in stunned bewilderment. She hadn't seen him since she had beaten him to save her brother, and here he was… reprimanding her for chewing the end of her pen.

Then he took her notebook from her too and started writing in the third column, she tried to protest and snatch it back, but he simply batted her hands away. She sighed and leant her head back against the tree trunk, looking up at the leaves.

"I don't need more choices, your majesty, it's hard enough choosing between two."

"Oh, I wouldn't be so sure, I think this one will be the perfect solution. I understand the appeal of the theatre, but why pretend to live in a magical world, when you could actually live in one?"

Sarah looked at him in surprise, but he just simply handed her back the notebook. She looked back down at the page and at what he had written. The first thing she noticed was that he had beautiful hand writing, the second thing was that at the top he had written:

_The Castle Beyond the Goblin City_

And underneath that:

_Everything you have ever dreamed of._

Sarah looked at him. "That's quite presumptuous of you."

He grinned, his sharper-than-normal teeth peeking out between his soft-looking lips. "If there is anything I know, dear Sarah, it is dreams." He leaned closer and Sarah felt her heart trip over itself in its haste to beat faster. "There's no rush to decide, but just know that the Underground has long been ready to welcome you home. Call my name when you're ready to come back." He came even closer still. Close enough to almost kiss her, and then with a wicked laugh, he disappeared.

* * *

"He's rather… different to what I expected." Sarah's stepmother was rather hesitant as she talked to her while they washed the dishes.

Sarah looked over her shoulder from the kitchen they were standing in, into the sitting room where Jareth sat with Toby and her father. Toby was explaining his new favourite TV show and why it was _the coolest thing ever_.

Sarah smiled and turned back to her stepmother. "That's what everyone says."

"And… You're certain you really want to move to England with him?"

"England" was a little lie that Sarah felt was necessary in telling her parents that she was going to live with Jareth. She wasn't sure that it would go very well if she replaced it with "the Castle Beyond the Goblin City".

"Very certain." And she really was, as certain as she could be about anything. Even though he wasn't her stepmother's dream husband with a stable job, reliable income and perfect house. Or her mother's dream… boyfriend-of-the-moment with the Hollywood smile and look-how-much-money-I-have sports car. He was her dream king. And that was what she wanted.

* * *

"What did he do?" Sarah lounged on the throne in a rather Jareth-like fashion, as the Goblin King in question sauntered towards her, slowly taking off his gloves.

He smirked. "He told me I was a petty little king with no real power. He actually asked me what the worst was that I could do."

Sarah tilted her head, unable to keep the smile from her lips. "And what did you do?"

"My worst." He gave her an almost feral grin and then sat down at the base of the throne, allowing her to run her hand through his hair, as she often liked to do. He preened like a pleased cat. Or perhaps more like a wolf, if wolves ever preened when you ran your hands leisurely through their fur.

"You seem to take a kind of sadistic joy in punishing your enemies."

He laughed, low in his throat, and Sarah closed her eyes, better to listen to the sound.

"You like it."

She bit her bottom lip as she smiled. "I never said that."

"You didn't have to."

His voice was a self-satisfied purr and Sarah was about to say something to wipe off the smug grin she knew was on his face when he, probably predicting what she was about to do, got up and kissed her.

_Sly bastard._


	3. Funny Kiss

**_Author's Note_**

_This was a prompt sent to me on tumblr, if you'd like to send me a prompt you can find me at **quiddityofstars**._

* * *

_**Funny Kiss**_

"Toby!" The four-year-old giggled in Sarah's lap as she tried to frown at him but ended up giggling too. Toby's small hands were covered in paint, and now so were Sarah's jeans thanks to his refusal to stay within the limits of the piece of paper she was helping him finger-paint. Perhaps this hadn't been the best idea for an afternoon activity.

She looked down at the painting and tilted her head, thinking out loud, "You know, if you look at it in a certain way, it almost looks like a goblin."

"That 'cause it is goblin silly." Toby replied with a slight lisp due to a missing front tooth.

"Oh, of course, silly me."

"Can I show it to Jareth?" He asked hopefully.

"Toby, I told you not to say his-"

"Now Sarah, you wouldn't deprive Toby of showing me his wonderful art, would you?"

Sarah sighed as the arrogant voice came from behind her and she felt his presence at her back.

"Jareth! Look! I made a goblin!" Toby grinned proudly at the Goblin King sitting behind Sarah and pointed at the painting on the floor in front of him.

Sarah blushed when Jareth rested his chin on her shoulder as he looked at the painting. "Excellent work, Junior."

"It still really bugs me that you somehow managed to teach him your name in the small amount of time I was in the Labyrinth." Sarah grumbled.

"I thought it was a stroke of genius." She didn't have to look at him to know he was smirking.

"Your name was his first word, Jareth! Do you know how difficult that was to explain to my parents?"

He laughed, a lovely low noise that made Sarah smile despite her best efforts not to. "It was very entertaining to watch from my point of view."

Sarah rolled her eyes and dipped her fingers in paint, then turned and slowly wiped the paint over his cheek.

Jareth stared at her in shock. She simply smirked at him.

"How very dare you mark such a beautiful face! I am a king you know!" Toby giggled at Jareth's dramatics and watched as the Goblin King grabbed Sarah's chin with one gloved hand and dipped his other in the paint. Sarah tried to escape his grasp but he held firm. "Now, now, precious, hold still, it's only fair." He lifted his paint covered fingers to her face and began to paint patterns around her eyes.

Sarah sighed and stopped struggling. If she was honest with herself, it felt nice to have his fingers gently brushing over her face. "I thought you didn't believe in fairness."

"I do when it works to my advantage."

Sarah scoffed. "I should have known. What are you painting on me? What if this stains? It's not face paint."

He gave her a look. "Great and powerful Goblin King. Vanishes paint in the blink of an eye. Now available at your local castle beyond the Goblin City."

Sarah tried her best not to laugh. And failed.

Jareth smirked and turned her face to Toby. "What do you think, Junior? Does she look like a Goblin Queen?"

Sarah blushed and Toby nodded, clapping his hands, "Pretty Sarah!"

Jareth turned her face back to his and gave her a smug grin, which, despite her best efforts, Sarah found very attractive, so she kissed him. She could feel his grin growing as he kissed her back. Stupid Goblin King with his stupid soft, sweet lips that tasted of peaches.

"Ew," said Toby. "Do you got to do that every time he's here, Sarah?"


	4. Surprise Kiss

**_Author's Note_**

_This was a prompt sent to me on tumblr, if you'd like to send me a prompt you can find me at **quiddityofstars**._

* * *

_**Surprise Kiss**_

"What do you think?" Sarah asked, her hands on her hips, looking around the bedroom she had just finished unpacking her belongings into.

The small dog at her feet, Merlin the Second, gave a happy bark and she smiled and nodded in agreement.

"I think so too."

One second she was looking around the room with a content smile, and then the next second the Goblin King was standing in front of her. She only had time to briefly take in his appearance - mostly the same as the last and only time they had met, glitter, mess of blond hair, determined eyes - and to think _where have you been for the last seven damn years_ \- and then he was taking a step towards her and placing his gloved hands on her arms and kissing her.

Then she only had time for her eyes to flutter shut and to notice how his softer-than-expected lips tasted like peach before he was gently pulling away, letting go of her arms and stepping back.

She opened her eyes. Bewildered and stunned and rather disappointed that he had stepped away, she stared at him.

He stared back. "I simply could not wait any longer. Really, Sarah, I can perhaps understand taking some time to think, but seven years?"

She blinked. "But… You were waiting for me to ask to see you? I was waiting for you to come to me!"

He just looked at her for a moment. "I… Thought you might not wish to see me after… winning. I decided to wait until you wanted to. But you never called for me and I can only be so patient."

She took a moment to let this sink in. "I thought you wouldn't want to see me after I beat you." She bit her lip nervously.

Jareth's eyes went to her lips for a moment before he looked back into her eyes. "I am not that much of a sore loser, Sarah. I would be a fool if I put my pride before you."

She felt her heart tremble.

Merlin II chose this moment to poke his head out from behind her legs and Jareth looked down at him.

"Your dog appears to have shrunk." He stated.

"It's a different dog."

"What happened to the other one?"

Sarah wondered if anyone had tried to teach him social skills. It was strangely endearing that he appeared to be rather awkward at having a normal conversation. "He passed away."

"Oh." He looked a little guilty. "My condolences."

"It's okay, he was old, and he had a nice life. I do miss him though. I'm glad to have Merlin II around." She looked down at the dog with a little smile. He responded with a happy bark and, evidently deciding the strange glittery man was no threat, trotted over to Jareth and started licking his boots.

Jareth looked rather amused. "That's a good name."

Sarah hesitated for a moment and then blurted out, "I missed you."

He looked up at her in surprise, the corners of his lips lifting up in a stunned smile.

She took this as a good sign, and filled the surprised silence between them with the words "You can kiss me again, if you want."

And he did.


	5. Strawberries

**_Author's Note_**

_This was a prompt sent to me on tumblr, if you'd like to send me a prompt you can find me at **quiddityofstars**._

* * *

_**Strawberries**_

"They're a special kind of strawberries."

"They're what?" Sarah looked over at Jareth, where he was trying to casually lean against a peach tree (he didn't quite pull it off, he looked too interested in her opinion of his personal garden, and the cream silk shirt and tight leather trousers might have been casual on him but they certainly wouldn't be on anyone else. She couldn't deny she took quite a bit of pleasure in the fact that he cared what she thought).

He gestured to the strawberry plants she was standing next to, his hands covered with soft grey gloves. He was always wearing gloves, she'd have to ask him why, some day. "They're magical. We have a few different kinds of magical fruits in the Underground, they all have different properties. The peaches," he gestured to the fruits in the tree above him, "create dreams of whatever the eater desires." He paused, clearing his throat, and had the grace to look sheepish for a moment.

Sarah felt her cheeks warm and decided it would be best if the conversation moved on. "And the strawberries?"

His face cleared and he nodded, "The strawberries allow you to see auras, just for a few hours."

"Auras?" She looked down at the strawberries in surprise and gently touched one, the skin of the fruit was cool under her touch despite the warm sunlight flowing down over the garden. She saw Jareth nod out of the corner of her eye.

"They appear like a coloured light glowing around someone's body, and they tend to be different depending on strong emotions. If the aura is mostly yellow, for example, the person is usually joyful."

Sarah nodded. "That makes sense." She picked a strawberry and took a bite, smiling as the sweet taste touched her tongue, the sticky juice lingering on her lips, she slowly chewed and swallowed, then looked over at him.

She caught him looking quite intently at her, his eyes dark. She felt warmth in her cheeks again and swallowed a second time, then blinked as a light began to shimmer around him. It was a little yellow, but a hint of pink hovered around him too.

"What," she cleared her throat, "what does pink mean?"

The Goblin King pushed himself off the tree trunk and walked over to her, stopping a couple of steps away and smiling slightly. "Love," his voice was soft.

An odd feeling came over her, and she had a sudden knowledge that she was on the edge of something, and whatever happened next could either go very badly or very well and she was terrified of both directions.

"And who is the Goblin King in love with?" She asked, the words slipping out of her mouth, the taste of strawberry still on her tongue, without her really meaning them too.

Jareth looked at her for a long moment, then tilted his head. "Surely you know."

She only remembered that she was still holding the strawberry when it slipped from her fingers. "I really need you to say it, Jareth. No tricks, no riddles." She took a deep breath and realised she was trembling. "Say your right words."

The was a smile on his lips, a beautiful one. His eyes sparkled and he stepped close enough that they were almost touching. If she were to close her eyes she'd be able to sense his body next to hers.

"I love _you_, Sarah Williams."

So she kissed him, because he had said his right words, and that was the way to do it.


End file.
